The present invention relates to an inventive parking structure, the purpose of which is to promote pedestrian activity in, and ease of access to retail, commercial office, residential, transit and other facilities within a liner building about each wall of the parking structure and outward of the mixed-use pedestrian-oriented parking structure.
Historically, little variety has existed in the design and structure of multi-story parking facilities as, for example, is reflected in U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,305 (1993) to Hotta et al, entitled Multi-Story Parking Facility; U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,186 (1998) to Kauman et al, entitled Multi-Story Building Complex With Access Between Garage, Building Decks And Each Floor At Same Elevation; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,270 (2001) to Johnston, entitled Multi-Level Building With Ramp. In all cases, such designs park cars perpendicular to and on both sides of two-directional automotive parking access isles that run throughout the parking garage structure. Therein, a multi-story building to which a given multi-level garage relates does not define any particular complemental relationship thereto. In other words, the prior art in the instant area has addressed three primary concerns, i.e., that of the entrance and exit of the largest number of vehicles possible in a given period of time, secondly, the parking of the largest number of vehicles per square foot of parking structure and, finally, schemes for access, typically from a single side of the garage structure to a multi-story building associated therewith.
The within invention addresses the above issues but, more importantly, provides for a more ergonomic relationship between the mix-use pedestrian-oriented parking structure, the multi-story, mixed-use liner building with which it is associated, and destinations outward of the mix-use pedestrian-oriented parking structure so as to provide better pedestrian access between the parking structure and the destinations of interest to the individual travelers who use the parking structure.